The point I was trying to make is that's not the case.  It's just Chelan PUD trying to keep the county from modernizing.  You're not hearing about fires, people dying, etc...  You're hearing misleading figures and outright lies designed to further their agenda.

Consider this quote from https://www.chelanpud.org/about-us/newsroom/news/2018/04/03/pud-board-acts-to-halt-unauthorized-bitcoin-mining  Take note that the announcement is actually coming from Chelan PUD.  It's not them being misquoted or taking things out of context.  John Stoll, Customer Utilities managing director, when discussing the recent shutdown of a "scoundrel's" (their word, not mine) mining operation.

They shutdown the mining operation because the power usage increased "to 11,000-plus kwH, far above what residential wiring is designed to carry."  Now at first glance that may sound like a lot but, as most of the people reading this forum already know, you need to break down the numbers to see what you're actually dealing with.  So, 11,000 kwH aggregated from a month of 24/7 mining.  11,000 kwH divided by 24*30=720 hours in a month.  That means 15.3kw per hour.  Divided by 240v = 63.75 amps.

63.75A??  That's what Chelan PUD considers "far above what residential wiring is designed to carry?"  What a joke!  Nearly all modern homes have at least 200A service and even the most ancient breaker I've ever seen is designed for 100A.  If it was the actual wiring from the breaker to the receptacles they're talking about that's just shitty wiring that's not up to code.  It has NOTHING to do with mining.  Anything you plug into an outlet with faulty wiring is going to cause a fire.

From a practical standpoint, I did some math about how much power was being pulled at my house while Easter dinner was being cooked.  Between my oven, range top, hot water heater, heat in the living room, etc...I was pulling WAY more power than that.  I pulled it for hours.  If you want to talk about fire hazard add to the raw power the fact that my oven was 350 degrees, I had four red-hot heating elements packed into a room with copious amounts of alcohol, all being piloted by a person who was far too intoxicated to legally drive.  Now THAT is a fire hazard but you don't see the PUD kicking down doors and pulling the plug on Nanna's Easter dinner.  The article even points out that when looking at the mining operation from the outside "they could see open windows and a balcony door open to the chilly spring air likely keeping the cryptocurrency mining equipment cool."  Far better than the single window open in my kitchen.

It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the PUD attempting to justify their stance.  Using the "Do it for the children!" argument is absolutely ridiculous.

-TBT